Right now, Florence Pugh is one of those actresses who is burning up in the spotlight with a wave of strong performances. The English entertainer is also loved for being relatable like Jennifer Lawrence, and, her next director sees a political path for her, too.
The Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve makes the comments about his Princess Irulan portrayer in a recent Vanity Fair article ahead of the film’s release in November. Essentially, just as her character is no-nonsense and in a high-stakes position, so too does Pugh have the personality in our reality, and, if she wanted to, Villeneuve believes this could take her into Parliament.
“When I met Florence, I was struck by her assurance, how grounded she is as a young woman, how direct, how unapologetic. She has something inherently royal about her. I will definitely believe Florence could become, in the future, a prime minister.”
At the moment, Pugh has not really waded into political discourse apart from a post on Instagram in 2020, where she touched on our current wave of culture warfare and apologized for earlier instances of what critics deemed cultural appropriation. Villeneuve does not mention Pugh much elsewhere in the piece, but adds the film is more of a continuation than a sequel, and, while the film is a war epic and action movie, Villeneuve made sure the love story at the center of the production will not be overwhelmed by set pieces. Certainly, there is a lot of information about the film in the report, but online, fans are focusing on Pugh’s possibilities.
While some on Twitter say this is an instance of a king recognizing a queen, others are not so certain. Historically, entertainers getting into politics has not been something which produces the best results and one says we should all be very wary of the idea.
In the quoted tweets, the sentiment is essentially the same. While some say Villeneuve is just being overly dramatic, others agree she would be good despite having no experience in politics at this moment and one even jokes that if she were to ever follow the footsteps of people like Boris Johnson, Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown, the United Kingdom would somehow see a new golden age.
Of course, for now, such a thing is not happening. Those who wish to see Pugh in a fictional position of power can when Dune: Part Two premieres Nov. 3 and, after this, another Dune film is possible while Pugh has projects like We Live in Time coming, too.